Letter from Benjamin Jennings Seward to William Henry Seward, March 17,
1837

Transcriber:spp:mec

student editor

Transcriber:spp:keh

Distributor:Seward Family Papers Project

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1837-03-17

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Letter from Benjamin Jennings Seward to William Henry Seward, March 17,
1837

. I paid his bill at that place & gave him money
to return with & requested him to hand you back the bill you gave him
unbroken – I hope he did so & if not you must let me know.
Early the following morning the stage took me up and in two days & a
night brought me to Pittsburgh

without interup- ment, except in the last 20 miles which were extremely
muddy. Three days more brought me in safety to Cincinnati, where at
twelve O'clock at night or a little after I was lodged most gladly in the
bosom of my family. More hearts than one re- joiced in my safe return
– more than one now swells with gratitude to God for His preserving
goodness of us all during our separation[ . ]

x

Supplied

and I have been consulting from
time to time over your generous offer of a place for us at Westfield. –
The propo- sition, tempting as it seems at first, is encompassed with
difficulties: our hearts have fluttered over it – resolving to
accept and half resolving to reject it, alternately. The great change in
my mode of life – the loss of the society of a circle of dear
Chris- tian females to Mrs S. – the embarrassment it will occasion
Augustus

to change his home –
the injury it will, possibly, inflict upon the Am. Union – and the
difficulty of finding a successor in my office, all occasion me
uneasiness, in accepting your kind offer. Still, in the hope of
benefitting Marcias health and of rendering you some humble service in the
settlement of the great estate in your hands and of benefit to others, I
am prepared to make the sacrifice of feeling it will occasion me &
Marcia & Augustus will be equal- ly cheerful in the change proposed.
But whatever may be the hesitancy on our part, we do not fail to see the generosity

and kindness of the offer and are thankful for it. It may never be in our
power to repay this liberality to you – but it may, to your
children – and we should think meanly of our selves, if we were to
suppose for an instant that we should want the disposition. In gratitude I
do believe is not an ingredient in the com- position of either of us. a
thousand and a thousand times we thank you for your kind offer & we
pro- pose to accept it in person without delay. It seems difficult to
determine upon the day when we shall be able to ^be^ with you
– perhaps not the day we proposed – 1st April. I am struggling to effect arrangements so that I shall
not be obliged to use the draft you gave me – if otherwise, I will
inform you. Marcia is scarcely as well as when I left her – is
rather thinner & more feeble and needs Chautauqua